tilefish

This Tuesday, Food & Water Watch applauded as two separate lawsuits where filed in Florida, challenging the legality of a recently finalized program known as catch shares that would privatize access to tilefish and grouper – public fish stocks – in the Gulf of Mexico.

One challenge came from the 90,000 member-strong Coastal Conservation Association, a recreational fishing group based in Texas. The other came from an independent small-scale commercial fisherman with a strong backbone named Brian Lewis, based in Clearwater, FL. Both legal complaints cite the unfair (and likely illegal) process used to develop and finalize the privatization plan, and the unfair intended outcome: creating a program that makes a "free market" tradeable commodity of the ability to catch fish – principally to enable a handful of businesses to control public fish resources.

Titled the Amendment 29 to the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Fishery Management Plan, the plan was approved by National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) despite glaring problems – including the failure to conduct a social impact assessment; the awarding of the bulk of the catch shares to fishermen who use a gear type known as longlines, which might not even be allowed in the Gulf in the future due to the fact that they are suspected of killing ten times the number of sea turtles allowed; and a sham referendum that excluded 70 percent of commercial fishermen whose jobs were at stake if the plan passed.

In June 2009, Food & Water Watch provided NMFS with an 18-page comment letter outlining problems with the plan, including the privatization aspect and violation of the national and international laws.  Food & Water Watch also conducted its own re-referendum surveying the fishermen who were excluded from the initial vote and found that the nearly 90 percent of respondents opposed the privatization plan. Had these fishermen been included in the initial vote, it is questionable whether the plan would have passed the referendum hurdle. Still, NMFS proceeded to approve the plan seemingly without regard for this clear opposition and the risk of massive job loss.

The legal challenges by Brian Lewis and the CCA will hopefully result in an end to fishery privatization in the Gulf. Food & Water Watch is opposed to privatization of public resources and is calling for Congressional oversight hearings to raise the matter to a national level.

See our Fair Fish campaign and fact sheet for more information on the issue and on ways to help protect our oceans and give fish and fishermen a fair chance.